The immigration/labor rights march: An upbeat side of Seattle May Day

The crowd at Seattle’s annual May Day march for immigrant and labor rights holds lots of young people, many young parents with toddlers, and signs for a multiplicity of causes..

Volunteers pass out water bottles when the crowd reaches the Federal Courthouse. The music from the stage is thumping.

Only the speakers’ rhetoric is dated, although historic. “Viva La Lucha” was heard during the United Farmworkers’ organizing campaigns of the 1960’s. A frequently heard chant was the theme for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign: “Yes, we can.”

It’s a disappointing scene if you are an anarchist.

Two young masked men walked toward the courthouse, and became aware that traffic was moving freely down Stewart Street. One said, in disgust: “Oh (bleep), they haven’t even blocked the intersection.”

Earlier, anarchists wearing Guy Fawkes masks were asked to remove themselves from the front of the march.

The immigration/labor march has drawn thousands — the crowd arriving at the courthouse appeared in the 700-800 range.

It has even become an occasion for campaigning. Socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant had a table set up, and a Sawant banner forced people off the sidewalk on Stewart. But supporters of opponent Pamela Banks, of the Seattle Urban League, held signs at the rally.

The annual rally’s serious purpose, pushing the cause for immigration reform in America, has at times been upstaged by confrontations later in the day.

A young marcher named Eduardo voiced hope that wouldn’t happen Friday. He is 20, an undocumented immigrant (hence, no last name) who wants a secure life and to be “part of America.”

“We are saying that we can contribute to this country,” he added. Eduardo is in the process of becoming part of President Obama’s program that lets young so-called “Dreamers” remain in America if they were brought here by parents, are working and/or enrolled in school.

“What we now need is to protect families from becoming split up,” he said, alluding to a fierce federal court fight between the Obama administration and Republican governors of conservative states.

The mellowness of this marcher contrasted with the fiery words from the stage delivered by Anna Hackman of the May 1st Action Coalition.

Hackman decried “our free market capitalist government,” describing the U.S. as contributing to depredations ranging from narco atrocities in Central America to the apparent murder of 43 students at a Mexican college, to deportations taking place in the U.S.

“A riot is the language of the unheard,” she declared.

The anti-establishment rhetoric was delivered directly below the jury room of the Federal Courthouse, which is named for the late U.S. District Court Judge William L. Dwyer.

Dwyer is a symbol of the enlightened America that speakers like Hackman ignore. He was a lawyer who represented butchers against big meatpacking companies, took the case of a former legislator libeled as a communist, and delivered the decision that halted liquidation of the Northwest’s old growth forests.

The Seattle bar has produced such folk. The big Perkins Coie law firm won a recent federal court case that will — for the first time — end discrimination and put Hispanics on the Yakima City Council. The Central Washington city is 41 percent Latino.

The state of Washington is now more than 11 percent Hispanic.

The May 1 march is a call to be heard. It’s already happening. And Hackman had a valid point to make: “We create change when people come together at the grass roots.”